Roaming The Google Streets

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About This Travelogue

This blog is about the lesser known but beautiful, wonderful, huge, unique and sometimes bizarre places around the World. Started on January 1, 2009, it is an outcome of my association with Google Earth Community, which I joined on Sept. 29, 2006. Since then I have been regularly flying to almost all the corners of WWW (Whole Wide World) and have virtually adopted the age old motto - Perfect time to see the World is after retirement.

My favourite section in the Community is "Fun and Games" - in which members post riddles and puzzles on almost all subjects and generally give hints for searching and locating the relevant places and or events on Google Earth. I have made several hundred posts in this forum and must have solved about the same number, though several were beyond my grasp. Believe me it is not easy to solve these riddles - Finding the answer is 90% perspiration (research) and 10% inspiration but it is pure 100% joy and sense of exhilaration.

This forum provides a stimulus to my brain and keeps it active. I strongly recommend this for those who have time and penchant for solving puzzles, but a word of warning – it is highly addictive.

My travels around the World are not limited to Fun and Games only, however many of the places being covered in this travelogue were found as a result of my researches for making posts in Fun and Games or trying to solve the riddles given therein.

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Kofuns are megalithic burial mounds or tumuli in Japan, constructed between the early 3rd century and early 7th century. Most of the kofun mounds are keyhole-shaped - a design which is unique to ancient Japan.

Sakai city, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, has more than 50 kofuns of varied sizes. The large ones are key hole shaped and in an area of 3.3 x 3.7 km. atleast seven kofuns can be seen in Google Earth in a scale of the image given below;

Amongst these is the World's largest kofun known as 'Daisen Kofun' - the burial mound of the Emperor Nintoku, the 16th emperor of Japan.

The mound is three-tiered and surrounded by three moats. It is approximately 486 meters long and has 305 meters wide frontage with about 33 meters height. The rear circular section is about 249 meters in diameter and 35 meters high. In comparison the base of Great Pyramid of Giza is about 230 x 230 metres.

The only ancient structure which surpasses the area of Daisen Kofun is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico, which has a base of 450 x450 metres. However the Mexican Pyramid was a place of worship and not a single grave.

The Daisen Kofun is the World's Largest Grave by area. Reportedly it was built in 16 years, using a huge workforce of 2000 workers per day which is equivalent to more than eleven million man days. It is so big that its shape can only be visualised from air.

Similarly all other photos/images from various other sources are under the copyright of their respective owners, web portals/application etc from which these were obtained. Wherever possible due acknowledgement has been made about the source.

Actual terms of copyright/reuse is available in the source link given below each image.